Freedom Overrated
by FearTheMightyPen
Summary: He's there. He's being held prisoner. He's being used, abused... hurt. Since when did his pain become mine? MxM ZxS AU


**Title: **Overrated Freedom

**Rating: **M – Sexual situations, depressing topics, self-harm, slavery of the sexual type

**Pairing: **Zoro/Sanji, Sanji/Multiple others

**Warning: **If you do not like malexmale, I wouldn't read any of this. If you don't like dealing with topics of rape, bondage, slavery, and self-harm, do not read either. Despite the depressing topics being covered, there _will _be a happy ending… I'd kill myself if there wasn't going to be one XP

**Disclaimer: **One Piece and characters belong to Eichiro Oda. The idea of the story is half mine, half a doujin I came across and can't remember the name of -.-

**Time: **1 hour

**Words: **1,117

**Summary: **He's there. He's being held prisoner. He's being used, abused... hurt. Since when did his pain become mine?

**AN: **I came across an AU doujin about a week ago about a poor Zoro and Sanji who were childhood friends. Since it was in Japanese, I couldn't really understand it… but, basically Zoro sees Sanji with some rich people at a funeral, and then he goes hacking and chopping at them until he finds Sanji, who he then takes from the place and… yeah… this is going to be loosely based on that doujin, but there's gonna be a lot of differences in my interpretation of it. enjoy!

Friendship.

A noun.

Three meanings, all of which are the same.

Lets see the second one:

Friendship is a mutual feeling of trust and affection that typifies relationships between friends.

Whatever the hell that means.

For us, friendship was a feeling of similarity and hate that kept pushing us on, pushing us forward.

It was all we had.

"_Ah… ha… ha… Zoro!" Sanji called, his breath coming in ragged gasps as he fell further and further behind his friend, arms laden down with the coin purses he had managed to lift. His shin was starting to hurt where it had come into contact with a metal-toed boot. Already, he was limping as he attempted to catch up with the uninjured boy in front of him. "Wait up you damn sea-weed head!"_

_That got the boy's attention, and so Zoro paused, hovering near the turn into yet another alley, his green eyes darting from Sanji's approaching form to the distant outlines of the people they were running from. His arms were full of bread, and a roll was being held between his teeth as he waited, quivering with nervous energy._

It was always the same, those chases. Sanji would flaunt his natural good looks; I would sneak in and steal food. The next thing anyone knew they were without their coin purses and the food stands were a little lighter.

Normally, Sanji's hands didn't falter in their nimble dash toward the pockets of those he either clung to crying, or those ignoring him completely. But then again, normally he didn't have to try and get away with distracting them and pick pocketing with some smartass kid-hater nearby.

One moment I was stealthily cradling buns in my shirt, watching Sanji for the signal out of the corner of my eye, and the next the boy was on the ground, purses flying everywhere, clutching at his shin in shock and pain.

It took us just a few seconds to split, me well ahead of Sanji as he gathered up those purses he could and limp-ran after me.

"_Your going to slow," Zoro said, a fond smirk on his face around the bun in his mouth as he waited for Sanji to lean against the wall, catching his breath momentarily as he took weight off of his right leg. The other boy was alarmed to see the tan pant-leg stained red. "Oi, you okay?"_

"_I'll be fine," Sanji said, glaring at Zoro as he snatched a bun out of the boy's hands and popped it into his own. "Mmon, 'es go," Sanji just hadn't been gifted with Zoro's ability to speak around objects in his mouth… something that the blonde always teased the other boy about._

_Together, they limped down alley after all, Zoro waiting for Sanji whenever he started falling behind. Eventually, they got to the abandoned shack they had found a while back, and ducked in, huddling down in the shadows as they waited for the angry people still pursuing them to pass. When everything had calmed down, Sanji dropped the pouches he still clutched and reached down to his leg, peeling back the soaked fabric with a wince. Zoro instantly reached for a pail of water they had stored there, and ripped a piece of his shirt off to soak as he watched Sanji unveil the mangled skin on his leg._

"_That guy sure did a number on you," Zoro said, withdrawing the soaked rag and slapping it down on Sanji's wound, waiting for the other boy's response before starting the cleaning process._

_Sanji had fallen back against the wall of the shack, eyes closed, by the time Zoro savagely attacked his shin, and just gave a start, tensing up his jaw in response to the fresh wave of pain._

"_It was a fuckin' steel-toed boot," he grit out, clearly irritated with the entire situation. "Do you think it'll scar?"_

_Zoro snorted, slowly working the rough fabric around the wound, scooping some water out of the pail in order to further clean the wound. It was all the response Sanji needed to throw his head back and groan. After a while of cleaning, Zoro finally leaned back and tore off a cleaner section of his shirt to wrap it around the wound on Sanji's shin. Unlike the other boy, he still had a shirt… as tattered as it was. It was one of the upsides of having slightly more well off friends that outgrew their shirts. Sanji just had a bunch of old-geezers he was indebted to taking care of._

"_I have to go," Sanji finally said, his voice oddly quiet. Zoro turned to raise an eyebrow at him, curiosity clear. "Its nearly sunset," Sanji explained, his eyes still closed. He knew Zoro too well by this point. "I need to stop by Marie's and cook something up for the shitty geezer before I go to the others."_

"_Ah, Zeff still teaching you how to cook?" Zoro said, standing up and offering a hand to his friend as he cracked open his eyes, obviously exhausted from their dash. He waited as Sanji swept up half of the purses and grabbed a couple of rolls, stuffing everything in the too-big pockets of his too-big pants. "That's the sissiest thing ever."_

"_At least it allows me to legally get some money," Sanji said, quickly hauling himself up with Zoro's offered hand. He limped towards the door, but paused, as though something had suddenly struck him. In one swift motion he turned, grabbed Zoro's wrist, pulled him close, and slammed their lips together for a few seconds before releasing the thoroughly shocked boy. "I'll see you tomorrow, yeah?"_

"_Y-yeah," Zoro said numbly, watching as Sanji limped out of the shack._

It was just like that idiot to completely expose me to something I wanted more of… only to disappear off the face of the planet the next day.

I went to our normal meeting place, then went to all the other spots we frequented, but he wasn't there. I waited, went to all the places I could think of for almost a year… but no one, not even Zeff and Marie knew where the idiot blonde had disappeared to.

Slowly, I allowed everything but his smirking face to fade from my mind.

Besides, after I was framed for his murder, I was too pissed at him to think of anything else.

To think, some blonde guy just appears out of the blue, accuses me of kidnapping and killing his son without anything more than a picture of us together on the street (I was punching him in the picture… that made me snicker) as proof. Well, that and his money and a bunch of bored cops lounging around the city.

How I survived these nine years, I don't know. Maybe it had to do with sensei taking me in, teaching me the way of santoryu, but maybe it was also the sheer desire to find the smirking face of the blonde and smash his nose in. That would make everything better.


End file.
